pic: Team 997 summer/Fall project

[tsaksa]

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[Invictus3593]

This is great! Would be really helpful during the season.

How does it work?

[tsaksa]

Not shown in this shot is the end of the tester which has a number of connectors that are similar to a digital sidecar where PWM cables can be connected. There are connectors for PWM signals, digital I/O, encoders, analog sensors, I2C, and Spike relays. Most of them can act as inputs or outputs.

You connect to a device that you want to test to see if it is producing output, or a device that you want to control, and select the menu you want on the front screen. Once you select the test program you want, you use the front panel buttons or a control knob to operate the tester.

There is already another thread for this device, http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=121607 and we are working to get information up on our website, http://chsrobotics.org We have a prototype board layout which we will rev soon, and the software is being refined right now. We are thinking of selling either the complete tester or kits sometime soon, but do not know how many boards to order. Our team has very limited resources so our coach only wants to buy parts to make about 20 of them for now.

We also plan to make the schematic and code available for download once we get it finalized in case others want to build their own without purchasing a kit from us, or to make changes to a tester they did buy. It uses the same processor as the Arduino Uno so you have an Arduino or an FTDI programming cable, you can easily modify the program.

[wilsonmw04]

We made something like that last season. I was great for troubleshooting robots at regionals last year.

[tsaksa]

Yes, our team has also been making various types of testers for several years now, but the previous ones were somewhat limited. This one is by far the most sophisticated one we have made, and is quite flexible since it has can be reprogrammed in circuit to add or enhance features quickly.

What functions did you have in the tester that your team made? What controller or platform was it based on? Do you have pictures or documentation? We would be interested in possibly collaborating on future projects. It is not very practical for most teams to purchase or carry around large complex test equipment like logic analyzers, waveform generators, and oscilloscopes. But a custom tool like this may be able to provide much of the same type of troubleshooting ability.

[Jim Wilks]

Nice work!

Any guesstimates on pricing for the board or kit or fully assembled item?

[tsaksa]

Originally Posted by Jim Wilks

Nice work!

Any guesstimates on pricing for the board or kit or fully assembled item?

We are thinking we may need to charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $150. I think a team could build one on their own for less using an Arduino Uno, an LCD shield, and a bunch of discrete parts. But probably not for a lot less, and the finished tester would require a much larger case and have a lot of point to point wiring. I doubt there will be a big difference in cost between the kit and fully assembled tester. The biggest reason to go one way or another is that we do not know how many we could reasonably build solder and test if we get many orders.

Again look at the main thread under Electrical for links to more information. And please provide feedback on what you think of the proposed price and if your team might purchase one. This will help us judge demand. You can send feedback directly to the Supertester team at supertester997@gmail.com

[Dale]

You could also consider licensing it to Cross the Road or eStop electronics to handle the manufacturing and support or maybe AndyMark (though I don't know if they do actual electronics manufacturing.) I know a lot of FRC teams (including ours) would be interested. We saw a demo of this at FIRSTFare this last weekend...it's a very handy device. I could see you selling 100s with the right distribution (like selling it through AndyMark.)

[tsaksa]

Originally Posted by Dale

You could also consider licensing it to Cross the Road or eStop electronics to handle the manufacturing and support or maybe AndyMark (though I don't know if they do actual electronics manufacturing.) I know a lot of FRC teams (including ours) would be interested. We saw a demo of this at FIRSTFare this last weekend...it's a very handy device. I could see you selling 100s with the right distribution (like selling it through AndyMark.)

Thanks, I really respect your opinion on this. We had considered approaching someone to licence the design. However, we are a poorly funded small town team, and could really use the extra money we might earn by doing the manufacturing ourselves. That may not work out for us, but the team is learning so much from this project, we wanted to let them run with it. There is a lot of work bringing a new idea to market, and not just from the design side. Given what the team has learned so far, I consider this project a success already even if we never sell a single one of these.